11 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I always use as big of a hook as I can find, which in my boat is 5/0. It’s hard to hook them but still fun trying! River smallies will absolutely pummel those things 

Give that GOAT grub a whirl. Smallies will choke it and the hookup percentage is good.

50% isn't that bad for toads in heavy vegetation.  I actually have a better hook-up ratio with hollow bodied frogs than I do with soft plastic toads.

 

I do best in this emergent heavy vegetation scenario with a Zoom Ultra Vibe Speed Worm, but it typically doesn't elicit big bites quite as often as a toad or frog.

On 10/17/2021 at 8:56 AM, scaleface said:

I started fishing toads four years ago after an algae invasion. Caught some nice bass on them . Switching to braid with the drag tightened all the way down helped . I use 7 foot mh rod and the hooksets seem to be sufficient . I started using the VMC screw-lock belly weighted hooks that @Jaderose recommended . Its the best hook I found "so far" .

I'm a big fan of those hooks for a number of applications.  They work great on toads and on most anything else I want a slow horizontal drop on.  It's a good product, imho.